Said Ralph Chevry, board member of the Haiti Center for Socio Economic Policy in Port-au-Prince, quoted in "In Haiti, rivals claw for power as crisis escalates after assassination" (WaPo).
The caption on the top photograph at the link is: "Haitian citizens hold up passports as they gather in front of the U.S. Embassy in Tabarre, Haiti, on July 10, asking for asylum after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse."
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2 comments:
Bart writes:
"Back in late '87, Canada organized and ran an election for Haiti, even printing ballots and lending them thousands of standard Canadian ballot boxes, which are locked steel. It helps when you have hundreds of thousands of experienced election workers whose native language is French. They also attempted to supervise the election, but that did not work.
"Canada had a national election in February '88, and all our ballot boxes were made of cardboard and closed with tape. The ones we had lent to Haiti were so badly shot up as to be completely unusable. There was an explanatory poster with pictures.
"As I placed my ballot in that cardboard box, and the official poll-watchers from each of Canada's three major parties sat in a jovial group swapping stories about their families and work, I actually shed some tears of gratitude, and was far from alone in that response.
"Paper ballots. Voter ID. Voting only on election day, except for military and poll workers assigned outside their district. Voter lists tightly verified 30 days before the election. Employees must have at least 4 consecutive hours off when polls are open, and most pay their employees for that time.
"Once the ballots have been counted, twice, the results recorded, validated, , reported to the riding [=district], and the ballot box signed over to the provincial police for delivery to HQ ... well, out comes the wine, bread, cheese and other Québec yummies like duck pâté, and all the workers share a good late supper. Once HQ verifies receipt of the ballots, everyone is free to leave, but usually does not, until the goodies are gone. Then home to watch the national returns come in and learn who shall be Prime Minister.
"Note for Yanks. There is no direct election of a PM. (S)he's the leader of the party winning the most seats in Parliament."
cubanbob writes:
"Haiti is a failed state. Unless the US is going to once again occupy Haiti there isn't much the US can do to revive a functioning state that is merely moderately incompetent and that would be an unprecedented success. The US should pressure France to do the dirty work and have France send the Foreign Legion to do the dirty work. The Legion is actually quite skilled and probably better than the US in these types of missions. Haiti is ultimately a French affair and it's time they do something about it."
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